


Titlted equilibrium

by Zephyroh



Category: Hololive, Hololive En, Virtual Streamer Animated Characters, holoMyth
Genre: F/F, implied takamori, no beta: we die like yagoo's dream, very mild sexual content but rating m just in case
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:13:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29612715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zephyroh/pseuds/Zephyroh
Summary: “So, you’re looking for a murder mystery, is what youre saying?”, Kiara inquired, dumbfounded. What a strange, strange human she was. It piqued at Kiara’s curiosity; she often travelled - from what she could remember - and meeting new people was always a favourite part of her journey, maybe getting to know who Amelia Watson was could be a perk of this one.Amelia hummed in consideration before shrugging casually, “Yeah, I guess you could say that. Would you care to join me?”Kiara tiqued, though a small smile crept on her lips. “I was here first, so I should be the one asking.”“Alright, would you care if I joined you, then?”, Amelia fired back, imperturbable.
Relationships: Takanashi Kiara/Watson Amelia
Comments: 6
Kudos: 90





	Titlted equilibrium

**Author's Note:**

> so i started playing shadow of the tomb raider, got inspired and decided to fullfill my divine duty of filling up the ametori tag. then it kind of turned into a fairytale, I guess? anyway, bon appétit.

Kiara brushed the leaves off her hair, lowering the branch of the tree behind her. Stepping out of the hallway of vegetation that kept tearing at her clothes and scratching her skin, the sweet relief of not being squeezed on all sides quickly gave way to disappointment. 

Once again, she was met with ruins of small houses and cottages, overgrown with moss and bushes, the cobblestone barely visible behind the rights nature had taken back. However, the very blatant absent building was the particular set of ruins she was looking for: the majestic, imposing structure that she saw in her dreams, in her memories, overflowing with vibrant life and decorations, a ballet of velvet of satin, sitting on the mountainside like a king upon his throne. 

Frustrated, she kicked a rock on the ground. 

Out of the corner of her eyes, she caught a wall that stood out from the decrepit ruins around, half covered in leaves and vines. The stone beneath was worked and intricately carved into a smooth surface, very similar to two previous painted murals she had encountered on her way up, but this one was bare. Brushing the leaves away, she passed her hand on the stone, looking for any asperity out of the ordinary, an opening, an indentation, anything. Her face merely an inch away from the wall, her eyes scrutinized every aspect of the surface; she moved alongside the wall, hoping for a breakthrough. Suddenly, she felt a piece of rock give in at her touch. Heart jumping in her throat, she examined it closer, fingers itching to press it further. 

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, pretty sure some stones have to be pushed in a certain order.”, said a voice behind her. 

“Oh right, but which one though? Probably has something to do with the other murals…” Kiara mumbled, engrossed in her thoughts as she was trying to remember the depictions she had previously encountered, until, a few seconds later, she remembered that she came here alone, and had no idea who the voice belonged to. 

Spinning on her heels, raising her arms in a defensive position, Kiara squinted her eyes at the intruder and got a little taken aback at the sight. Perched on a partially crumbling low wall, feet dangling in the air, the small frame of a blonde woman waved at her, throwing her a wide grin. Everything about her appearance was startling to Kiara, from a trench coat tied around her waist _in the middle of a jungle_ , to a glimpse of something strapped to her thigh peeking through her shorts, or the fact that she had a magnifying glass in a holster at her hip, before Kiara got distracted by what looked to be a golden pocket watch, dangling around her neck but still visible as the collar of her shirt was opened at the top, complimented by a loosened red tie. Nothing she was wearing made sense, and this sensation was accentuated by the fact that, bar from her hiking shoes, she was completely clean and proper, not a speck of stain on her white shirt, a stark opposition to Kiara whose skin had partially fused with mud and could be mistaken as a walking bush at this point. 

“What the hell? Who are you?”, Kiara finally spurted out, the fire inside her flaring up at the potential threat. 

Unfazed by Kiara’s surprise or latent aggression, the woman simply responded “Amelia Watson. Nice to meet you.”

Slowly, Kiara lost her defensive posture, but kept a careful distance between them. Tentatively, she greeted back, “I’m Kiara Takanashi.” The woman - Amelia Watson - nodded and kept watching her silently. “And, what are you doing here Amelia Watson?” she added, a slight irritation leaking into her tone. 

“Probably the same as you. Looking for ancient, forgotten ruins, are you not?”

Kiara flinched, even though she shouldn’t be surprised. After all, there was not much else to do in the middle of this mountain. Still, it bothered her. The lost palace, the one which kept haunting her dreams and waking thoughts, always lingering in the background of her mind, was supposed to be hers, and hers alone. The notion that someone else could be searching for it was , for some reasons, irritating to her. 

“Yes, I am. But why are _you_ looking for them? Are you one of those archeologists looking for artefacts to steal and expose in some museum?”, she asked, not hiding the sly poison in her voice. 

At that, Aemlia Watson merely laughed wholeheartedly. “Hahaha, no, no, nothing like that. I’m here for a mystery.”, she hushed in a conspiratorial tone, winking at Kiara and further confusing the latter. The expression on her face must have been telling because Amelia Watson chuckled, and offered another piece of equally puzzling information. “I’m a detective you see. Number one Detective in all of History, actually, huh huh. Yeah. “

Defeated, Kiara sighed and leaned again a large rock at her side, massaging her temple. “A detective? Looking for ancient ruins of a lost palace?”

“Yup. If you’re here, you must be familiar with the legend, right?” 

Amelia Watson’s smile was almost unnerving at the way it was so neutral and polite, like an anachronism, settled in a place it shouldn’t be. 

Kiara acquiesced, remembering the stories the people of the village at the foot of the mountain told her when she first arrived. After her rebirth, her memories were still foggy and incomplete, just bits and pieces of her former lives, and she was convinced she would find some answers in the monument that plagued her nights, a constant shadow towering her subconscious. So she had departed to find the place, and maybe herself in the process. The villagers had told her that this mountain was once the heart of a blooming city, scattered all the way up the mountain where the palace of the reigning family once stood tall and magnificent. But tragedy had befallen upon the village; it became abandoned, and no one ever built there again. The closest form of civilisation around these lands was the new village at the foot of the mountain that had settled there many moons ago, but had never encroached where the ghosts of lost lives had previously resided, out of respect, or out of fear. Remembering the words of the old woman who had recounted the events, under the bare branches of leafless sakura trees, she paraphrased:

“I am yes. The city in the mountain that, so long ago, no one can clearly remember when it happened, was plagued by a terrible curse, and where most of the villagers and the entire royal family were decimated in the span of a few months, which ended when the remaining villager killed the last surviving Princess and fled the lands. What could a detective possibly be looking for here, if not riches and items to scavenge?”

“Ah, but exactly that, Miss Takanashi: _what exactly_ did happen to the Princess? By all accounts, the royal family was loved and cherished by the people, so what pushed the subjects to publicly execute the Princess, last remaining heir of her deceased family, in the middle of such a tragedy?”, Amelia Watson replied, her voice clouded with mysterious intonations. She rubbed her hands like a fly before a bread crumn. "Every since I heard that story, I am been dying to know more!"

“So, you’re looking for a murder mystery, is what youre saying?”, Kiara inquired, dumbfounded. What a strange, strange human she was. It piqued at Kiara’s curiosity; she often travelled - from what she could remember - and meeting new people was always a favourite part of her journey, maybe getting to know who Amelia Watson was could be a perk of this one. 

Amelia hummed in consideration before shrugging casually, “Yeah, I guess you could say that. Would you care to join me?”

Kiara tiqued, though a small smile crept on her lips. “I was here first, so I should be the one asking.”

“Alright, would you care if I joined you, then?”, Amelia fired back, imperturbable.

Finally, Kiara cracked a smile, unable to resist her amusement. Standing up, she dusted her legs, vainly as she was still covered in dirt, and gestured exaggeratedly towards the mural. “I reckon my chances of getting where I want are greater with the… Number One Detective of all History.”, she mocked in a teasing tone. “So, what do I do with this?”

Amelia cracked her neck and stretched as if preparing to exercise. Then, with deft fingers, she pulled out the magnifying glass from the holster on her hip, twirling it in her fingers before stopping it in front of her face, watching Kiara through it. Kiara didn’t resist the amused chuckle that built in her chest; she definitely found the girl more and more entertaining by the minute. 

“Well first, we have to uncover the big picture. Quite literally.”

Kiara waited, as none of what Amelia had just said made sense to her. Amelia finally hopped off her seat, landing in the dirt with a soft ‘thud’ and approached the wall under Kiara’s watchful gaze. She brushed the stone with her hand before leaning in, inhaling deeply as she pressed her nose against it. 

Kiara’s eyebrows shot up. 

“Hmmm, as I thought.”, the detective mumbled, satisfied. 

“Excuse me but, what the hell?”

“The stone here is covered with some kind of chemical that hides the painting behind it. The other two murals were painted, though it’s pretty faded at this point. This one should be good as new when revealed.” 

She motioned at Kiara to come closer. Hesitant and doubtful, the latter did what she was instructed, approaching her nose to the surface, and let out a gasp of surprise when indeed, some kind of chemical odor assaulted her nostrils. With a disgusted cry, she rubbed her nose frantically and asked. 

“Okay so, what now?”

“Now, Miss Takanashi, we burn it down.”, Amelia smirked with a dangerous glee dancing behind her eyes as she pulled out a lighter and ignited it with one swift motion. 

Before Kiara could react, she stuck the flame close to the stone which was immediately set aflame, illuminating the scene with a strange, unnatural blue hue. More from surprise than fear, Kiara jumped back with a strangled cry. The blue flames licked the stone, burning up whatever chemical coated it and as it subsided, shapes and colors were revealed bit by bit before Kiara’s amazed eyes. 

“Wow! This is… just a bunch of animals” Kiara deadpanned, the wonder of the discovery quickly fading to give way to disappointment in front of the representation of various birds, cats, dogs, see and farm animals. Notably, atop the wall, three orbs of transparent glass were disposed of in a triangle. 

Shifting her gaze to Amelia, she saw that the detective did not seem one bit fazed by any of what just happened. On the contrary, an excited flame was dancing behind her smile. Placing her hands behind her back, still playing with the magnifying glass that was, Kiara noticed, decorated with a cartoonish mustache, she shot Kiara a proud look, but remained silent. Kiara realized what she was doing and chuckled. Taking the hint, she took on her most fake impressed voice. 

“Wow Detective, what an incredible discovery!” she coaxed flatly, making Amelia giggle. “But for real though, what now?”

“Well, the first mural down there was a representation of a birth, the creation of life, and the building around them could have been some sort of nursery. There were tiny beds and cribs, so I believe the paintings are a representation of the part of the village they are positioned in. Kinda like traffic boards.” Kiara nodded as if she understood, or remembered what the first painting was. “Furthermore, in mesopotamian time and ancient Egypt, frogs were the symbol of life and fertility, so I would bet this is the first one we have to press.”

As Amelia pointed to the wall, Kiara followed her gaze that fell upon a bit of wall with a blob of dirty green. Squinting her eyes, she could discern the form of an amphibian… maybe?

“Then, the second mural was a graveyard in the night, and the fact that it was surrounded by tombstone confirmed my initial ideas. So obviously, the crow.” 

“Hmm, obviously”, Kiara concurred. 

“And now this one, there are only animals, but if you look at the ruins around,” Amelia spun on herself, extending her arms in a sweeping motion encompassing their surroundings. “There are bits of broken fences, and what looks like enclosures.” Kiara’s eyes draped over the bits of rotten fences, decaying and overgrown by vines and bad herbs, some building that could have passed for stables if not for the pile of debris crumbling down. “Therefore, we are left with either the cow, the sheep, or the chicken.”

“The chicken.”

Kiara’s own voice surprised her, and she shared a stunned look with Amelia at the rapidity of her own answer; gathering herself, she cleared her throat, shrugging as she answered Amelia’s silent question. “Just a hunch.”

Her expression unreadable, Amelia’s gaze lingered on her for a moment before the detective shrugged, reprising her casual attitude. “Well, I am a betting woman, so chicken it is. If you’ll do the honors…?”

Kiara shifted awkwardly on her feet as hesitation crept up her spine. _Could it be it? The way to the palace, finally?_ She had wandered in the mountains for a fews days now, and her hope was rapidly being snuffed out at each failure and setback. Instinctively, she reached into her pocket, finger caressing a smooth, circular piece of stone, the only thing she had on her when she was reborn from ashes. The stone, barely bigger than a coin, represented the sun and the moon, with golden rims expanding outwardly, and some strange slots carved into it, with no particular design she could discern. 

With very little left to lose but her expectations, she steeled herself, and pressed on the stone animals. The rock behind her finger gave in for just a half inch before a loud sound of stone grinding against stone made itself heard. The three orbs atop the wall lit up.

And then they were falling down. 

The landing was rough, as most unexpected landings are, and some expected ones too. With a pained groan, Kiara’s side hit some pointy rock as her coccyx hit the muddy ground at an odd angle’. At her side, she saw Amelia slide down the hole that had just opened, still on her feet, before stumbling awkwardly to the ground but maintaining her balance. 

Kiara’s anger flared up like a spark on alcohol. “Did you know that was gonna happen?”, she accused, her voice echoing through the cavern they found themselves in. 

“Nope!” was the infurtating response she got. 

Amelia’s smug smile faltered slightly as Kiara stood up, squaring her shoulder and vibrating with anger. Shooting her arms up in defense, the detective added. “Honest, I didn’t know. I was just lucky, I guess.”

Squinted her eyes at the short woman, Kiara mumbled non committable. Looking back, she realized that the opening was once a set of stairs that had crumbled down, eroded by time. Putting her hands on her hips, she sighed with exhaustion.

“So you’re telling me I’ve been going in a circle in this mountain for five days now, and all I had to do was press on some bunch of animals to open an underground passage.” 

“Yup.”, Amelia responded distractedly. She was already further up in the tunnels, examining the walls intensely. With a pained whine, Kiara dusted herself off to catch up with the detective. The tunnels were very simple, roughly carved into the stone and lacking the instricasy or craftsmanship of the village above. 

As Amelia pulled out a lamp torch, hitting it a couple of times beore the light sizzled and finally lit up. “Hmm, interesting…”, she whispered to herself, her eyes still attached to the walls. 

Kiara smacked her lips. “Could you stop doing that? Either spit it out, or stop talking. What is so interesting about this rock anyway?” she inquired, bumping her fist against the stone. 

“This tunnel was built in a rush, and definitely way after the village itself.”

Kiara hummed, this time in understanding.

“And that makes sense, right? Why would the outside part of the village be completely cut off from its center? Unless, the access was blocked on purpose, but they just made this tunnel to still have a way to go back and forth.”, Amelia continued her explanation.

“I see, I see. Maybe to prevent the curse from expanding?” Kiara was becoming more and more engrossed in the story, itching to get on Amelia’s wavelength. 

Something in the detective was pulling her in, and making her want to join in on her shenanigans. And furthermore, it was beneficial to her as she couldn’t shake the notion that whatever happened here was tied to one of her previous lives, somehow. 

As the word left her mouth, something struck her. “But was it to prevent the curse going in the heart of the village, or out?”

Amelia turned to her with a wide grin, eyes sparkling with excitement. “That, my dear Miss Takanashi, is an excellent question!”. 

Kiara smiled back, sharing the hype. She was starting to understand Amelia’s proclivity for mysteries; it was a gripping, exhilarating sensation. 

Eventually, after an indeterminable amount of time, as they chatted lightly on their way down, the tunnels gave way to a small room, bare of any decoration or ornament, only populated by two stone pillars, scorched by black marks on their sides, a plate of curved brass resting upon them. The remaining coal inside was the only indication something living had once passed by there. Between the pillar, two large stone doors was preventing any further exploration, with no locks or mechanism to open it in sight. 

Amelia stopped in front of one of the pillars, pulling out the lighter and fidgeting with it. 

“Could it be that simple?”, Kiara asked, doubtfult. 

“Occam’s razor: sometimes the simplest thing is the truest.” And with no further reflexion, she recklessly activated the device in her hand, lighting up the pile of coal in both pillars.

Similarly to the previous mechanisms, stone grinding against stone resonated through the small chamber, deafening as the two pans of the door started separating, revealing a flight of stairs leading up. However, Kiara’s keen senses also detected something else. A clicking sound, and a low growl of something familiar. Fire. 

Before her brain could catch up, her instincts took over and she launched herself at Amelia, throwing her on the ground at the feet of the stairs, covering her with her body. Above her, a column of fire roared, emerging from a previously invisible opening on each side of the room, filling it with a fog of burning plasma. Kiara felt the fire lick her back and the smell of burnt fabric but, as she was immune to the element, felt almost comfort at the familiar feel of non painful flame on her skin. Then another click, and the room was empty again. 

Kiara stayed on top of Amelia for a second longer, making sure everything was safe. Amelia’s face was frozen in an expression of surprise. She blinked twice, before looking at Kiara. 

“Good reflexes. Thank you!”

“Sure, don’t mention it.”, Kiara responded, out of breath, heart beating with force in her chest. “Or actually do, I could bear a compliment or two.”, she added, winking at the detective. 

“Duly noted. Now if you could…”, Amelia gestured at her with her head, as Kiara realized she was still straddling the small detective. 

“Oh, right.” Rolling on her side, she landed roughly on the ground beside Amelia, breathing heavily.

After a minute of regaining their composure, they eventually stood up, and Amelia stirred her bruise back from the brutal impact on the ground. 

“Gods, the person who designed those puzzles either loved fire as a concept, or was a straight up arsonist.”, she whined, rubbing her lower back. 

Kiara laughed, but something in this sentence nagged at her mind. 

* * *

The stairs led them up to another part of the village. They also realized that night had fallen, and the hot air was starting to get colder, sending shivers through their body as it hit their sweaty skin. 

They explored the ruins around a while longer, though nothing of notice struck them to Kiara's great disapointment. Amelia stopped in front of a large house, half of it crumbled down and part of the roof missing, its wooden structures exposed like bones under a wound. 

“Well, this is as good a place as any to set up camp.” she declared, putting down her backpack on the rotten wooden planks, creaking painfully under its weight. 

Kiara soon joined her, letting down her own gear and stretched, letting out a loud moan of relief. “I would murder a bitch for a nice shower, or ten.” she complained, eyeing Amelia with spite at the cleaness of the detective. Bar from a small coat of sweat on her forehead, her blonde fringe sticking to her forehead, she looked absolutely peachy. 

“Well, I can’t give you that, but I have a pan, water, and swipes.” she laughed as she unpacked her belongings. “Do you- Good Gods, Kiara!”, she suddenly exclaimed. 

Instincts taking over, Kiara fell into a defensive position, looking around with alarm. “What? Where?”

Cool fingers touched the exposed part of her back between the cortch part of her outfit as Amelia stepped behind her, brushing the skin lightly. Kiara shivered, not from the cold. “Are you alright? Did you get burn by the trap- But how-”

She spun around, facing Amelia who bore a concerned yet suspicious expression. Swallowing hard, Kiara let out a fake laugh. “It's alright, it only burned my clothes. I got lucky, I guess!” she offered, locking eyes with the detective. 

Amelia raised an unimpressed eyebrow, but said nothing. 

After the better part of an hour, they had set camp, Kiara having sneakily lit up the campfire with her phoenix fire when Amelia had her back turned. Amelia had warmed up a couple of pans of water and left to wander around as Kiara struggled to scrape the dirt off her skin. While Amelia was just prancing about, letting Kiara have her privacy, the phoenix still watched her with curiosity. She was walking around like she didn’t have a care in the world, occasionally pulling out a notebook to scribble or doodle in it, or playing absentmindedly with the watch around her neck. 

Amelia had told her she was here to uncover a mystery, but Kiara felt in her bones that there was something else there. Something that Amelia was very good at concealing, if not for the keen perception Kiara had developed from ages of analyzing and comprehending humans behaviours. Kiara couldn’t help but notice a sad reflection shining in her eyes when she thought she wasn’t being watched, or the longing expression she wore as she fidgeted with her watch, fingers brushing the device like they were searching for something… or someone. It felt all too familiar, as she had often seen this very look in herself, though she never knew why. And since Amelia was intent on discovering a part of Kiara, whether she knew it or not, Kiara longed to do the same. 

An hour later, the pink-orange hue of the sky started to dilute into navy blue, specked with dots of light, the fire cracked as smoke rose up at the cloudless sky, illuminated by stars, and the two of them were eating out of cans, chatting in rapidly freshening air. Kiara had started to make a count of the mosquitos whose lives were lost at her palms. 

“... so that’s how I realized that it was the best friend who did it, not the brother!”, Amelia said with panache, emphasising her point by clicking her fork on the tin can. 

Kiara clapped excitedly, engrossed by the intriguing tale. Then, something tilted in her brain, and she frowned. 

“But wait, wasn’t the Empire State Building constructed in like, the 30s or something?”, she inquired, searching her fuzzy memory. Maybe there was another big state building somewhere else?

Amelia blinked, a blank gaze on her face, before smiling placidly. “So anyway, what are you doing here?”

Kiara frowned. “What do you mean? I already told you.” 

She watched as Amelia searched her bag and pulled out a bottle of clear liquid, and an alcoholic scent hit her nose when Amelia opened it. She gestured toward it as a silent proposition. Shrugging, Kiara scooted closer, taking the bottle then a sip. Surprisingly enough, it was much sweeter and palatable than she expected, and found herself taking another right after. 

“Yeah, looking for the ruins, you’ve said. But why?”

Hesitation hung in the air as Kiara pondered the question, unsure of how honest she wanted to be with the detective. 

“Come on, spit it out, Kiara.” Amelia nugged her side impishly as she took back the bottle, bringing it to her lips. Kiara's eyes tracked the movement with interest. 

“And why should I tell you, Detective?”, she simply said, matching the blonde’s teasing tone and squinting her eyes at her. 

“Have you never poured out your guts to a stranger, just because you could?”, Amelia shot back in a lower voice, looking at her through her eyelashes as she leaned in. 

“Very well, a question for a question then.”, Kiara proposed as her defense. If this was to be a game for Amelia, two could play. 

The detective nodded in agreement after considering the proposal for an instant, saluting Kiara with the bottle. 

“I came here to… look for myself I guess.” After all, Kiara had promised an answer, a truthful one, but never a complete one. 

“Aaaah, a spiritual quest or something?”

“Or something, yeah.”

Her finger found the stone coin in her pocket, fidgeting with it for a moment. 

A flight of birds passed over them, one of the only audible sounds around them. Silence stretched between them like an elastic about to break. Kiara considered her options, looking for the right question to ask. ‘ _What is that watch around your neck? Why do you keep playing with it when you look in the distance? What are those seringues strapped to your thigh? Why, behind all your bravado and detective act, why do you look so fucking sad?_ ’. But instead, Kiara took a gamble, because she was nothing if not a betting woman. 

“What are you running from?”

Amelia choked silently as she struggled to swallow her sip. “Wow, not pulling punches, are we?”

“Well, it’s part of the game, right? You knew the rules…”, Kiara’s previously serious tone shifted, and Amelia stiffened, alarmed. 

“Don’t you fucking dare…”

“... And so did I!” As she started singing, Amelia threw her hand over Kiara’s mouth as an attempt to muffle it. The rapidity of the action made Kiara fall back, dragging the detective with her. The rest of her muffled singing became a full blown laugh under the cries of ‘stop it’ from Amelia. 

After a moment of wrestling on the ground, Amelia pulled out her hand, shooting a warning look to Kiara who merely snickered proudly. The detective then moved to lay beside Kiara, letting her eyes wander in the starry sky. Chest heaving from their hilarity, a peaceful moment passed before Amelia sat up to rest her arms on her knees, a pensive look on her face. Softly, Kiara spoke up, grazing her elbow gently. 

“You don’t have to talk about it, if you don’t want to.” She could see the stiffness in Amelia’s body. 

“It’s just- Well, it’s nothing extraordinary I guess… I'm just running from my past, like a lot of people.”

Something in that statement almost made Kiara, a person who kept running after her past, chuckle humorlessly. Curiosity nagging at her stomach, Kiara wouldn’t help but blurt out.

“And is your past running after you?”

“I’m too fast to be run after.”, Amelia laughed, smugly, giving Kiara a pointed look. 

A sad smile stretched Kiara’s lips. “That sounds lonely.”

“I do alright by myself. I don’t need anyone else.”

“So the only things you want from life are mysteries and puzzles?”

“What else is there? And I swear if you tell me a cliché thing like ‘love’, I _will_ down this entire bottle by myself.”

The exchange went back and forth like rapid fire, or like a game of speed chess.

Kiara watched Amelia’s profile intensely. Lit by the dim, orange hue of the campfire, carving her silhouette against the dark, cloudless sky of the night, shoulder tense and brow furrowed. She had an air of an ancient marble statue: majestic, and marked by the time. It was a fascinating thing to Kiara, for she had met many interesting humans in her lifetimes, but never quite like her. It was the way she sounded so young, yet wise, so quick in cementing her ideas, yet observant. She wanted to dig at her brain again, push her boundaries, scratch the surface of her aloofness and see what laid beyond. 

“So you don’t believe in love?”, she teased, slightly mockerish. Classic opening move, non threatening. 

That made Amelia chuckle lightly. “What does that even mean, _“believe in love”_? Do I believe that the universe has decided to assign me a soulmate that I have to find and finally be complete? Nah. Love is a trick of Evolution to make people reproduce and take care of their kids to assure the perennity of the species, and I have no intention of contributing to that.”, she scoffed, taking a sip of the bottle. “There’s so much of the world to explore, to discover, and investigate. Why would I waste it looking for someone who’s gonna eat my snacks and invade my bathroom. I have all the mysteries of the universe, of time and space at my feet. That’s what I believe in.” Offensive relatiation. 

Smile unfazed, Kiara continued to stare, squinting playfully. “And you don’t think that’s a form of love?” Aggressive counterattack. 

Amelia blinked, finally breaking her gazing at the horizon to look at Kiara who revelled in the confusion in her irises. “What?”, she blurted out, the opposite of eloquent. 

“Your investigation and exploration, that’s something you love. And you document it, you write about it, that’s sharing what you love with people. Isn’t that the most simple, barest human connection of them all. Telling each other stories we love?”. 

Kiara watched Amelia’s composure crumble slowly, bit by bit, as she blinked again, processing Kiara’s words, her shoulder slouched and her brow furrowed, her fingers fidgeted on the glass container and her leg began to bounce against the dirt. Kiara could see the gear and wheels turning in the detective’s head, and it was adorable. 

Stubborn, Amelia grumbled. “That’s not what I thought you meant…”. Petulant, like a child who got a tantrum denied, she pouted. 

“I know. You automatically went to romantic love with one person. But it goes beyond that this, and runs deeper than just romance.” 

“Alright, Wonder Woman, you win this one.” The detective conceded, before taking a swing of the bottle and passing it to Kiara with a defeated look. “Maybe I do live for love, in the end. Ain’t that a kick in the head.” Something in her voice tugged at Kiara’s heart. Knight drawn back behind the defense line.

She stirred, leaning back against the wood log, releasing a sigh of relief. Kiara smiled at her antics, endeared. “Why so cynical, Detective? What do you have against people, and their love?”. On a whim, Kiara threw her arms around Amelia’s shoulder who fell into her side comfortably. 

Amelia turned her eyes to Kiara who suddenly got caught off guard by the intensity behind them. With a strange tone, she offered a smile that looked fake . “Is that the moment where you ask me _‘who hurt you?’_ , Miss Takanashi?”. Queen out, aiming for the King.

Refusing to lose her ground, Kiara straightened her back, plastering an equally condescending smile on her face. Amelia’s eyes flared up, amused. _Oh, this is really just a game for her_. And just like that, Kiara doubted the advancement she thought she had made with Amelia. Like a firefly in the night, a target so visible, yet so unreachable, Amelia Watson was definitely a mystery of her own. 

“And what if I did ask you, indeed? Would you dare to be honest?”, she taunted, throwing a bait. Rock advancing, check. 

“But what if I’m the one who did the hurting?”. Queen takes Rock. Draw. 

Their gaze hung between them in the silent night, heavy, teasing, yet never malevolent. A strange air of honesty, lined in the words that were not said, floated like radioactive particles: powerful, and bound to disappear in time. 

Eventually, Kiara retired her King as she mindlessly let her fingers run up and down Amelia’s arm in a soothing motion. “I think when one person hurts another, in most cases, two person end up bleeding nonetheless.” The playful tone gave way to a certain melancholia only a person who has lived too much could hold. 

A melancholia that resonated through Amelia’s bone, before being diluted with guilt. 

“I think… We can agree on this, Miss Takanashi.”, she responded before leaning further into Kiara, unconsciously seeking comfort. 

Kiara saw the ghosts behind Amelia’s smile, and it echoed it hole she felt in her heart, missing _something_ she couldn’t quite place, like a word at the tip of one one’s tongue so frustratingly slipping away.

And maybe it was this mirrored pain they both shared that made her press her lips against Amelia’s. An attempt at seeking out comfort, reaching out to someone else that could, for a moment, help her mind rest. 

The kiss was very much like Kiara: warm, teasing, and pleasant. Amelia mechanically responded, not exactly surprised as the whole afternoon had been dancing on a tightrope between chatting and flirting, and she couldn’t deny Kiara was an attractive woman. But mostly, she wanted to stop thinking about the storm in her mind Kiara had unknowlingly woken up. 

Her body reacted more than her brain; she moved to straddle Kiara’s hips, deepening the kiss with a satisfied sigh, slipping her tongue through Kiara’s parted lips. As Kiara’s hand moved up her legs to the hem of her shorts, her brain became scrambled with desire, that was exactly the distraction she needed. 

The cold air was a welcome sensation against their bare skin as they disrobed with rushed, frantics hands, two souls looking for an easy, feeble connection. As Kiara left a trail of open mouth kisses alongside her collarbone, Amelia closed her eyes, focusing on the sensation and letting her instincts take over. Almost methodically, Amelia explored Kiara’s body, learning the spots that made her sigh and arch her back, not letting her time to breathe as Kiara clanged to Amelia, nails digging into her back, with another name she didn’t remember stuck in her throat. 

Much later, as Kiara’s warm body was wrapped around hers, Amelia’s sleep did not come easy. Mindlessly, she vrushed her fingers against Kiara’s scapula, agitated against her and mumbling incoherently.

Amelia’s eyes were staring into the distance, her mind equally far away, failing not to think of a different time, a different place, a lone foggy island sitting atop deep caverns, and purples eyes of a different shade. 

* * *

Kiara woke up to the sound of birds singing, wind chiming through brittle leaves, and the absence of warmth at her side. 

Sitting up, she yawned and stretched her arms above her head, welcoming the sweet sensation of her limbs unfolding from slumber. Next to the campfire, sitting on a log, she caught the sight of Amelia, wearing only her shirt barely covering her thigh, scribbling on her notebook with her right hand, and playing with the watch around her neck with the left. Once more, she felt the teeth of sharp curiosity nag at her brain. After taking time to enjoy the view, she stood up, wrapping the bedrolls around her and she took a seat next to Amelia.

Eventually, the detective took note of her awakeness. “Ah, you’re finally up! I was worried you were dead.”, she teased without the actual bite of sarcasm. 

“You may be good in bed, but you’re not that good.”, Kiara shot back sticking her tongue out. Amelia flicked a twig at her in response, giggling. Yet, something in her attitude was different from the day before, something more open, more vulnerable. So, Kiara took a chance, tucking a strand of blonde hair behind her ear, drawing light blue eyes to her. 

“Where were you, just now?”, she asked softly, as if any sound would break the bubble that had formed around them. 

“In the past, I guess…” Amelia responded, voice only a whisper. “What-” She started before interrupting herself, hesitant. As a gentle encouragement, Kiara slipped a hand in her hair, scratching her skull lightly. “What would you do if you could try and fix something, but it could also make it so much worse?”

Kiara’s words left her momentarily, as she did not expect this. Although, she was not sure what she sould have been expecting. Nevertheless, the shroud of mystery surrounding Amelia cleared a little bit, as Kiara realized: she was plagued by regret, whatever that regret came from. 

“Do you think it’s worth it to try?”, Kiara asked instead. 

“Of course it, but I’ve failed before. And I… I lost someone.” As Amelia’s voice wavered, she clutched to her watch almost painfully, her knuckles whitening. 

“Amelia… I’m not sure what you’ve been through, or what my experiences compare to yours, but, if you think it’s worth it, you should try and fight for it, in my opinion. If I had lost someone, I want to believe I would try anything to get them back.”

“And have you? Lost someone?”

“I think… I think that’s what I’m hoping to find here.”

* * *

As Amelia started tidying up the camp, gathering their belongings, Kiara finally changed into her set of backup clothes, delighted at the sensation of clean clothes, free from mud and dirt, against her skin. She was particularly proud of the outfit she found, matching her color palette while still being effective against the hot, stickly air of the jungle. 

Turning around, she noticed Amelia staring at her with a dubious expression, eyebrows raised.

“Your outfit is… cute.” Amelia said, almost like a question, leaving a meaningful hesitation and she looked the woman up and down. 

“Aw, thank you!”, was the response Amelia did not expect. 

“Hum, yeah, so that wasn’t exactly meant as a compliment.”

“But it wasn’t _not_ meant as a compliment”, Kiara fired back smugly. 

“I guess not. I mean- What?” Amelia brought a hand to her face, rubbing her confused eyes. 

“You think I’m cute.”

“I also think you’re gonna trip and fall to your death.” She gestured at the very short shorts, complemented by shoes meant to look like hiking shoes, tied with colorful shoelaces, but did not seem even remotely adequate for actually trudging in bogs and steep, indented mountain paths. 

“I’m tougher than I look. Now, shall we get on with it?”

With no further comment, Amelia shrugged, setting off to the dirt path leading upwards.

The way up was arduous and exhausting. The path that was once paved with carved cobblestone, bridges and stairs was decrepit and eroded by time. Vegetation had overgrown it, masking with leaves and vines the civilization that once stood there, absorbed in the soil and roots of the new life that had taken over. Kiara had no problem navigating between branches, hoping over logs, climbing hillocks and indented walls - her body was wired and trained for it, consciously or not, and she advanced methodically through the jungle, keeping an eye on the sun in the sky to make sure they were not straying too far away from their destination. 

At her pace alone, she would have probably made it to the top within a couple of hours, but that was without taking in account the fact that, for all the research and intellect she possessed, Amelia Watson was in no such physical shape. As Kiara was propping herself up a low wall, her progress was interrupted by a loud swearing behind her.

“Mother balls!”, Amelia blurted out, arms shaking as she was attempting to climb behind Kiara. 

The phoenix and part-time warrior crouched, an amused smile on her lips as she watched Amelia struggle. 

“I’ve seen you show better physical prowess than that”, Kiara noted with a smirk.

“Shut up” was the response of a very red detective, only partially from the exercetion. 

Eventually, Kiara extended a hand that Amelia took, not without a death glare of warning. 

The heavy vegetation cleared revealing another part of the village. Several huts and cottages were built, carved directly into the mountain side, surrounding what looked to once have been the main square where a fountain had been built, now dry, the statue adorning it broken in half. The second half of the statue that Kiara gathered to have been a woman, wrapped in beautiful robes decorated with a symbol - a sword facing upward embedded in a shield with angular shapes - was lying on the floor a few feet away; the face of the statue had been ravaged, making it impossible to discern any specific traits, and the damage done did not look like it came from the fall, or from time, but by human hands. 

Something nagged at Kiara’s brain, something about the statue, but what her attention was drawn by something else, further, beyond the few shacks still standing. 

The side of the cobblestone road was littered with candles, copper plates filled with rotten food, bags, dolls, wooden crafted object, ribbons and embroideries, pans of silk half eaten by mites, all the way up to a an enclosed area accessible by a large gate, flanked by two ominous statutes of black raven. 

As they reached the gate, ajar and rusted, Kiara realized it was: a cemetery. Emerging from the ground, a hundred tombstones covered the whole area, punctually interrupted by leafless sakura trees, their branches curved and hanging low, grazing the carved stones like a crowd in mourning. Something dropped in Kiara’s stomach. Suddenly, the world of the all women telling a tale took on a whole different sense of reality. Now they were not just words, but people buried under Kiara’s feet, only to be remembered by an epitaph, and a folk legend. 

“They were not kidding about the terrible curse…”, she whispered, her voice low and heavy. 

“Indeed… Well, at least we have some sort of answer, now: the curse did come from inside the palace.”

Emotion gripping her throat, Kiara moved to a little shrine on the side, below the naked branches of a tree. With trembling hands, she grabbed the candle that looked the most intact, lighting it and placing it among the offerings, reciting a silent prayer in her head for the souls that had suffered here. When she opened her eyes, Amelia was watching her curiously, but did not comment. 

In the distance, a murder of crows cawed loudly, the sound echoing like a cry of sadness. 

“Are you a religious person, Amelia?”

“I guess I was once, in a way.” Then Amelia paused abruptly, before her shoulder started to shake from a muffled laughter. 

Kiara frowned, unsettled. “What is so funny?”

“Nothing, I just thought of a good pun…”, Amelia said, but her voice was far away. 

A cloud passed on her face before Kiara saw her building a mask, shielding her emotions from Kiara’s inquisitive eyes. Respecting her privacy, and whatever she did not want to talk about, Kiara averted her eyes, offering a slight squeeze on the shoulder nonetheless. 

Clearing her throat, Amelia regained her composure. “We should get a move on. The palace shouldn't be too far, and we should get there before nightfall”. 

* * *

As much as Kiara had dreamt about it repeatedly, nothing could have truly prepared her to face the palace in reality. As they finished their way up an endless flight of stairs and finally reached the heart of the village, the wind was knocked out of her at the sight. 

The Palace, even with cracked cobblestones, marble pillars in decrepit, pierced with vines and bad herbs covering its surface, even with the roof partially collapsed, sending a wave of red bricks tumbling to the ground, remnants of banners and flags torn apart, swaying in the wind like a salute to a time that was gone; even then the Palace was magnificent. 

Yet, the tears that stinged her eyes were of profound sadness, as she was trying to compute the images of joy and vibrant colors she had in her memories of the cold, crumbling grey and tainted green reality in front of her.

Amelia slipped her hand against hers, squeezing her fingers for comfort. That gave Kiara the courage to move her feet, and move forward. 

They walked down the path leading to the Palace door, surrounded by an alley of naked sakura trees, the cracked stone under their feet resonating throughout the empty, silent air around them, like an ominous beat pulsating at the rhythm of Kiara’s heartbeat in her ears. They reached the entrance, a set of two doors carved from worked, polished wood. With a nod of agreement, they started to push against the door with all their strength, as the wood scraped against the floor painfully slowly.

The large wooden doors finally gave in, opening just enough for Kiara and Amelia to squeeze through, not without heaving breaths and strained muscles. 

And then a blade on fire fell from the ceiling. 

Only due to her phoenix godlike reflexes, Kiara pulled Amelia out of the way as the fiery blade slammed down where her face previously was a second ago. They fell backward, eyes wide and hearts at the verge of an infarctus. 

“Geez, the person who designed those really didn’t fuck around…”, Amelia mumbled, swallowing her saliva with difficulty as her heart was racing in her chest.

“Ugh, why would anyone even think to create such traps and puzzles, seriously.” Kiara grumbled, massaging her sore ass. 

Amelia laughed, but it rang a little hollow. “Boredom.”, she stated simply, and knowingly. 

“Really? If you had all the time in the world, you would use it to create intricate, ridiculous puzzles for… for what? To test people? Verify that they are worthy of the things you’re hiding?”

“Nah, just for fun.”

“So, just to be an asshole?”

“Yeah.”

Rolling her eyes, Kiara picked up a pebble and threw it at Amelia’s face who raised her arm as a shield, snickering. Then Kiara’s head snapped up, staring at Amelia with a serious look. 

“What did you just say?”

“... That I was an asshole?” Amelia responded tentatively, taken aback by Kiara’s change of attitude. 

“No, before. ‘ _The person who designed it_ ’. And that’s not the first time you’ve said that, you also said the same thing right after you were almost burnt to a crisp and I saved you.”, Kiara mused, searching her memory. 

A sly smile crept up Amelia’s lips as she let Kiara continue her reasoning, enjoying the sight of her working her brain to figure it out. 

“So you’re implying that someone else came here, after the facts, and designed these traps? Because it wouldn’t make sense for the people of the village to have constructed those. Then, who did it?”

“That, Miss Takanashi, is another excellent question that I very much hope to uncover. What is it about this specific place that warrants such special protection? “

Mechanically, Kiara reached into her pocket, letting her finger graze against the carved stone rock, pulling it out as she stated fidgeting with it

The question hung in the air as they both caught their breath, standing up and taking in the sight of what appeared to be the throne room. With a ceiling thirty feet high, a set of pillars running on the side to support the crumbling roof, everything about the architecture projected power and dominance. The throne itself was situated at the back of the room, on a high pedestal, accessible with a set of stairs. All ornamentation or furniture that once had been there was ripped apart and broken, leaving splinters of wood spilling out like a field of thorns, the carved marble and stone shattered, leaving web spider cracks running through the room like a glass window hit by a rock. 

The room was unsettlingly _empty_ , so far from the idea one would have of a luxurious throne room, which only served to accentuate the oddity of the only decoration visible: parts of the walls were painted on with no recognizable pattern, like a mosaic built blindly. Bits of an arm here, a splash of yellow there, half of a face, green and red, with no coherent design. 

Kiara’s eyes were drawn to the throne carved out of smooth stone in a way that the bottom of it looked like it was resting on stone flames crawling up the side of the throne, decorated with embeded golden rims, with only a small circle carved out at the center of the heart of the fire. 

She turned to Amelia, wiggling her eyebrows. “Wanna do it on the throne, let me treat you like a queen?”

Amelia choked on her saliva, rolling her eyes. “Yeah, thanks; I’d rather not get a rash from hundred of year old dust in my vagina. I’ll pass on this one.”

he detective approached a wall, carefully inspecting it as something about it bothered her. Beyond the bits that were painted at random, as it seemed, there were parts of other symbols that Amelia couldn’t quite place, like seeing a deconstructed version of an alphabet. 

When Kiara joined her side, equally absorbed by the wall, the detective finally noticed the object in Kiara’s hand. 

“What is that?”, she asked, maybe a bit too abruptly. 

Kiara jumped at the rushed tone. “Humm, nothing, a lucky token I guess. Always had it on me.”, she responded almost defensively. 

At that, Amelia nodded, taking a step back, apologetic. “Sorry, didn’t mean to be harsh but… Kiara, does this have anything to do with the Palace?”; she asked slowly, looking at her intensely. Kiara, despite herself, felt a bit of guilt flare up, tinting her cheeks. 

“I mean, I don’t know…”. That was almost honest. 

Hesitantly, she handed the coin to Amelia who accepted it in the palm of her hand, almost with reverence. Immediately, she took it between her fingers and examined it. Then, something lit her up her eyes, like two clogs of a machinery finally ticking in place. 

“Could it be…?”

She turned the two sides of the coin stone on themself, and a slow mechanism could be heard through the dense material, until a light click rang and the carved out parts, previously separated, communed into one, separated by only a thin line. Now, as the sun and the moon rested beside each other, other lines formed a complete strange symbol directly carved into the stone, surrounded by golden rims. As Kiara cooed, impressed, Amelia froze, stomach dropping like a flightless bird. She stared at it for a second that felt like hours, like her gaze could pierce it the way she felt it was piercing through her hand. 

“Well, I had no idea it could do that!”, Kiara exclaimed, flabbergasted. After all the time she had it with her, she never thought of it as anything more than a piece of rock. 

Amelia stayed uncannily silent as her eyes were scanning the room with intensity.

She raised the stone in her hands, flipping it between her fingers to study both sides of the engravures, opposite, yet completing each other now reading a strange symbol on each side. She started walking around the room, pacing back and forth, and Kiara settled comfortably on the stair at the feet of the throne, elbows on her knees, resting her chin on her joined hands, waiting for the theatrics with amusement and glee. As Amelia tracked her mouvement, she stopped aprupty, focusing on the fire design of the throne, and more particularly, the perfect circle at the heart of the flame - like a keyhole. 

With deliberate mouvement, Amelia placed the coin in the circle, settling perfectly into place, the golden rims joined the ones running on the side of the stone flames. After a second, a set of deafening mouvement sprung in action behind the rock, gear and wheels turning and clicking until the pieces of painted mural on the walls started turning and switching around on themselves, displacing themselves to form a new pattern, revealing new, complete pictures and symbols. The previously disjoined painting on the walls reconnected as part of the walls switched position in a cacophony of stone grinding against stone, until they settled, one by one, revealing an immense fresco plastered on the entirety of sides of the throne chamber.

“Ah, this is so exciting! What does this mean?”, Kiara asked excitedly, clapping her hands together. 

Amelia let out a humourless laugh under her breath, inaudible to Kiara. She swallowed hard, composing her face before turning, forcing a smirk. 

“That, Miss Takanashi, means that I have been mistaken.”, she stated, holding her chin high and closing her eyes in a perfect pose of a comic book detective. She shrugged before adding, “Well, partially mistaken. I’m never completely wrong.”

She took some time to let her eyes drape over the new representations; the mural was separated in several panels, each representing a scene, accompanied by the strange symbols both familiar yet unknown to Kiara, but that Amelia seemed to recognize with a certain sense of dread. Even without comprehending them, Kiara gathered that they were the narration of the story depicted on the stone. 

After a moment of analyzing each panel, Amelia spoke up again. The detective somber attitude changed, adopting a more gleeful, nonchalant posture. 

“For you see,” Amelia continued, voice booming against the decrepits ruins with exaggeration, turning to Kiara with a mischievous look on her face. Kiara giggled, endeared. “This story is not only the story of a forgotten murder mystery, it is a story of a forgotten love.” 

Kiara tilted her head to the side, intrigued, as something unknown in her stomach stirred. Regardless, she clapped her hands with a squeal. She loved love stories. 

With a voice, heavy of something Kiara could not exactly discern, Amelia explained. “Those symbols, I’ve seen them before. They’re a part of a long forgotten dialect, the former language of the Divines, from before humanity was created, and it is nowadays only studied and known in a very small circles of some… cults, worshipping Old Gods of the depths.” There was a pregnant pause, Kiara’s attention wrapped by the detective, as she pretended not to notice the shift in her attitude. Amelia blinked a few times, clearing her throat before regaining her composure. 

“So these symbols,” She pointed at the carved representation of the sun and the moon on the stone coin, now embedded in at the foot of the throne, intricate ornate with golden rims running along the frame, joining its center completing the design. “They not only represent the sun and the moon, but also Life and Death. The people who crafted this language tied life with light, and the warm light of the sun was what brought life, while the soft light of the moon represented the afterlife. Both are complementary, and sequential.”

Amelia rested her hand on the walls, then moved alongside it, letting her finger graze the asperity of the stone. Her voice became soft, distant, almost melancholic as she recounted the tale carved into the stone, like a memory of a dream. Something gripped at Kiara’s throat, though she did not understand why. 

“This place was once a city, as we’ve gathered so far, and in this palace resided the family that ruled it. So, our story begins, as most stories do, with a Princess.”

Kiara laughed distantly at the words, but her mind was focused on the pictogram beneath Amelia’s hand. A figure, faceless with bright orange hair, draped in beautiful robes adorning the symbol of the sword and the shield, surrounded by smiling faces that looked like her. A family. 

“The Princess’s family was large, and was happy. They flourished alongside the village who celebrated every birth, every wedding, every piece of love and glee that the family had to offer.”

Kiara stared intensely at the stone painting; she could practically hear the bells, and the laughs and the music, and the rhythm of the people dancing to drums and strings, and her heart felt like it was twirling in her chest. Merging with the music and the sound of laughter, Amelia’s voice resonated through Kiara’s head, gentle and guiding. Kiara closed her eyes, and the images took life behind her eyelids.

“But the universe is nothing but balance, and a terrible curse was brought upon the family.” Amelia’s took a darker undertone, sorrowful as a crow on a tombstone. “A sickness that spread out throughout the land, and hit the Princess’s family and then the village. One by one, her family started decaying, slowly, but inevitable.”

> _Coughs and blood on tissues, resonating through hollow ribcages. The bells, a mourning wail ripping through the night. Ceremonies upon ceremonies, and the garden, turned graveyard, its denizen growing like the moss upon the stones. A frail hands in hers, as last goodbyes are whispered in trembling voices_

“And so, as Death visited the palace more and more to bring the dying to the afterlife, the Princess became acquitted with it. For the Princess was good and wise, and knew it was not Death’s fault that her family was leaving her, but she was grateful that they would have someone to guide them to the next part of their existence. As the Princess brought flowers to freshly turned dirt, a figure could often be seen beside her, tall and wrapped in black robes, a dark, threatening scythe on Its back, but never did the Princess fear It.”

> _The moon. Always the moon, high in the sky, piercing through the clouds and the rain that poured down the sakura trees. A hand on her shoulder. No apologies, but comfort nonetheless. A flower held by a warm hand, taken by cold fingers._

“The Princess was so full of warmth, and love, that even Death could not help but be captivated by her, and it was with a bittersweet heart that the Princess greeted Death, and offered It her company. Death was prideful, and pragmatic, but slowly, like a once living thing trapped in an ice coffin thawed by the sunlight, Death discovered the frightful, insidious grip of selfishness. For you see, Death now longed to see the Princess again, and hoped It would never have to come _for_ her, someday.”

> _Sakura leaves, reflecting the moon, falling around them like dancers waltzing. A bird, landing her hands. She laughs. She rests her head on a cold shoulder, and Death leans back in return. Cold eyes staring into hers, but softness in the voice that sings to her in the moonlight, a blush burning her face. Two figures, slowly moving at the rhythm of a music only they could hear._
> 
> _“I like it when you smile.”_
> 
> _“I don’t have a face._
> 
> _“You smile with your eyes.”_
> 
> _And at their next encounter, Death was wearing a face, pink hair flowing like sakura leaves blown by the wind, and Its smile was, indeed, beautiful._

“In the dead of night, people would sometimes see the Princess wander through the lands, through the gardens, through the still palace, frozen in the sleep of its inhabitant, Death at her arms. And so, the people of the land became angry and resentful. Why did Death come for everyone of them, but not the Princess? Was she responsible for this calamity? they thought. Grief and sadness quickly turned into anger, and anger is rarely rational. Therefore, like their sadness, they also turned, against their Princess, forgetting about her warmth, and her love, and her own losses, because when you feel something is missing in you, it’s easier to find a culprit than to find peace.”

> _Fire and shouts. Panic, as loud steps and vindictive cries resonate through the halls. Why? Pots crashing, and furniture torn apart. The smell of burned wood, and sulfure, and smoke burning her lungs._ Why us, and not you? _Fear gripping at her stomach, hands gripping at her robes and hair, tearing, pulling. Blood in her mouth, and accusation in theirs._

“They attacked the palace, at night, thinking that if Death went away with the Princess, they would finally have peace, and Death would never come back to the lands. But what they did not know was that the greatest sin had already been committed: Death had become selfish, and refused to take the Princess's life. And what can you do, when Death refuses you? The universe roared, and the sun ripped through the fabric of the night. The universe was unbalanced, and this could not continue. Fire rained upon the Princess, an attempt to restore equilibrium, but Death fought back, for It would not see the warmth leave Its lover’s heart. 

> _Fire all around her, flesh burning, but no pain. Only the pink reddish eyes staring into her soul, smiling, comforting, through tears._
> 
> _“Don’t worry, I’m never leaving you.”_
> 
> _A whisper and a promise. A kiss, and then darkness_. 

“And so, from the ashes, the Princess rose again, the underworld not able to take its hold on her; but she had changed. Her memories burned with her that night, and only scorch marks remained, an obscure stain of remembrance that you can analyse, sometimes retrieve information from, but never quite recover in its entirety, never quite whole and unscathed again. But she could not die either, for Death had relinquished Its power over her, voluntarily. And so, the Princess was reborn from fire, and would be reborn every time, losing pieces of herself in the process, but still be reminded of her greatest love over and over again at each new life, and she and Death would walk alongside each other on a disjoint path, full for new beginning and and old farewells, Death waiting ever patiently for her to come back, for the universe is a punishing one, but never takes without giving in return.”

Amelia’s voice died in the distance, and Kiara felt reborn again as her mind was flooded with flashes and images. Her memories, her lives, her adventures, all the things she had seen and done, the people she had met, the failures and the successes, the highs and the lows and Calli, Calli, Calli. 

Always Calli. 

She jumped, her startled heart squeezing in her throat when she felt Amelia’s hands on her shoulder. She opened her eyes, meeting the concerned sky of Amelia’s eyes, kneeling before her. 

“Hey, Kiara, are you alright?”

She was crying, she realized. Amelia was rubbing her shoulder, shaken by silent sobs, and brought one hand to her cheeks to wipe a tear dragging down. She leaned into the comforting touch. 

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine. I just got… emotional for a second.” Shaking her head, she wiped her tears with her wrist. Amelia’s hand slid alongside her arms, taking her hand into hers, tenderly caressing the finger with her thumb, soothing. 

“You’re really into love stories, huh?” she asked, gently teasing. 

Kiara smiled, and it reached her eyes. “Yes, even when they’re a bit sad and tragic. Especially then”

Hoping to lighten the mood, Amelia grunted with exaggeration. “Well I don’t. My heart is way too cold for them anyway.”. 

But Kiara, with brand new eyes old of a thousands lifetimes, of endless grief and joy and loss and deaths, saw right through her. She rested her forehead again Amelia, silent. _‘No you’re not. Because the immensity of your pain is but a reflection of the love in your heart. You think you want the hurt to stop, for your heart to stop feeling like a beating, open wound But the real tragedy would be for it to shrivel and decay, turn cold and unfeeling. You hold so much, in that heart of yours._ ’, she didn’t say, because Amelia was not ready to hear it. 

“As cynical as the universe.”, she whispered. 

They stayed like this for a moment, Kiara drawing comfort from Amelia’s gentleness. The detective, for her part, felt somewhat unsatisfied as the mysteries she longed for turned to be something else entirely, now shadowed by even more intrigue and unknowns- _who was the princess, who designed the traps and why?_ \- but she couldn’t not bring herself to care at the moment, for she only could focus on Kiara sobbing in her arms. A mystery seemed hardly relevant in light of Kiara’s epiphany, whatever that epiphany had been.

“Kiara, are you sure everything’s alright?”

“Yeah, I just remembered something really important.”

* * *

“So, where to now, Detective, What great mysteries in long forgotten places shall you uncover next?”

Amelia laughed lightly, adjusting her sunglasses on her nose. “Well, for one, I’m definitely done with the dry air and the fucking endless heat. I think I want to see the water.”

“Oh, really? Anywhere in particular? A beach vacation does sound nice.”, Kiara hummed in agreement. 

“Haha, no vacation, Miss Takanashi, for a Detective’s work is never done. I’m thinking, humm…” she hummed, dragging the suspense as she tapped her finger on her chin. “...long lost civilization, sunk under the depths of the ocean. I’m thinking of an empire that vanished in a blink of an eye. I’m thinking, my dear Kiara, of the City of Atlantis!”. She exclaimed, throwing her arms in a circular motion as if the city was right in front of them. 

Kiara chuckled, never bored with Amelia’s theatrics. “Oh, interesting. Are you going to discover why it sank?”

“Oh no, no, no. Great civilizations that brought destruction upon themselves are hardly great mysteries, and way too boring for the best Detectie around. No, Miss Takanashi, I want to discover the greatest unknowns, hidden in the ruins.”

“Could you be a little more vague, please?”

“The people, Kiara. How they lived, and what they left behind. That is the only constant in this world. People’s memories are always somewhere, like ghosts around us, and I want to bring light to them. No one should be forgotten forever.”

A knot in Kiara’s heart jumped to her throat, and the playful retort died on her mouth. “Indeed, you are very right, Miss Watson.” 

She paused, letting the moment pass, before recomposing herself, turning toward Amelia with a slight bow. 

“Well, Detective, it has been a pleasure.” She paused, adding in a low tone with conspiratorial smirk. “In more ways than one.” A slow blush crept on Amelia’s cheek and Kiara couldn’t help but laugh at her embarrassment. It was almost too easy to fluster her. “I do hope we shall meet again, someday.”

Amelia looked into Kiara’s eyes behind her sunglasses. This scenario was a familiar one, to her. There was always a place, always an investigation, often a companion, whether intellectual, physical, and sometimes both, and then Amelia would move on, untethered. But this time, when she responded “I hope this as well.”, she was not lying. 

She did not propose for Kiara to join her, nor did Kiara think she would. The understanding between them was implicit, like a knowing nod from someone across a room as two similar wavelengths met. 

“What about you, then? What spiritual quests are you going to chase now?”

“I just remember I had a very important date.”, Kiara responded with a mysterious tone.

Amelia simultaneously frowned and raised a curious eyebrow, painting such a comical expression on her face Kiara burst into laughing. Taking inspiration of Amelia’s very own gimmicky pose, she turned, placing a hand on her hip, raising a hand to the sky.

“A date, with my Destiny!”

As Amelia puffed, she turned around to take in the mountain one last time. For this life at least. Her heart fluttered in her chest at the sight. 

The sakura trees were blooming of a radiant pink. 

**Author's Note:**

> "But Zeph," you ask, your voice strained with exhaustion. "How many time will you make us read about friends with benefits ametori sleeping together through their emotional issues ?"  
> "One more time." I answer as I vanish into my wips. 
> 
> and there it finally is. took me quite a while, and even more struggle to finish it, but i'm rather proud of how it turned out nontheless! this time, for real, no continuation is planned, and everything that was or was not implied will be left, dear reader, to your own imagination :)
> 
> Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed the ride!
> 
> I am @zephyroh on the cursed bird app, if any of y'all want to talk ametori to me, or just see me complain while writing


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